Larry Bird says he and Red Auerbach are about loyalty, which is why they never would have traded the big three (Bird, McHale, Parrish) like Danny Ainge has said they could and should have. (Ainge talks about how that time impacts what he will do with the coming changes to these Celtics.)

Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson will be in Orlando during the All-Star festivities to talk to David Stern about the progress in Sacramento on a new arena. They may not like to hear this in Orange County, but the March 1 deadline for financing will be extended.

Kings rookie Isaiah Thomas is playing through a bone chip fracture in his left hand (non-shooting, but still).

Not the one everyone has been talking about and speculating on for the past few days. But a trade nonetheless. Yahoo’s Adrian Wojnarowski broke the news with a tweet.

New Orleans has traded Darius Songalia and Craig Brackins to Philly for Willie Green and Jason Smith, league source tells Y!

This is not a huge move for anybody, but it may say a few things.

Willie Green seems the guy to use as a backup point guard or two guard, behind Chris Paul and Marcus Thornton — he is not spectacular but he gave the Sixers a solid 21 minutes and 8.7 points per game last season. That’s not what Sixers fans will tell you, however. They were really, really down on him. In the way only Philly fans can be.

No Willie Green in Philly likely means more minutes for Evan Turner. They are banking on this guy.

Jason Smith will be entering his third hear in the league as a somewhat offensively limited big man (7’0″ off the bench). Not a bad buy for the Hornets to have around after their trades this summer.

What the Sixers get out of all this is less clear. Songalia gives the Sixers a journeyman forward they can bring off the bench and get some solid minutes from. He averaged 19 minutes and 7 points a game for the Hornets last season.

Sixers president Rod Thorn was high on Brackins, which is why he is now in Philly. Brackins has now been traded twice without ever setting foot in an official NBA practice, He was drafted No. 21 by the Thunder then traded on draft night to New Orleans as part of the Cole Aldrich deal.

Guys under rookie contracts are gold in the NBA — they don’t cost much, and some contribute a lot. Guys on those contracts almost always get them picked up.

Joe Alexander was not picked up. After two injury plagued, low production seasons — one in Milwaukee, one in Chicago — he got to test the market.

The Hornets worked him out — they are on a quest to find some backup big me — and were impressed, so he got a partially guaranteed invite to camp, according to a tweet from Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo.

Alexander had raw athleticism out of West Virginia to go No. 8 overall in the draft (ahead of Brook Lopez, Robin Lopez, JaVale McGee and JJ Hickson among big men). Alexander was raw but had good athleticism, good work ethic and the kind of intangibles that made teams think he would figure it out.

But injuries — starting with a hamstring issue in his first camp — robbed him of a chance to prove any of that. He never got on track.

He’s going to have to compete for a roster spot with Craig Brackins, Aaron Gray, Darryl Watkins, Darius Songaila and Pops Mensah-Bonsu. We’ll see how he does against guys who have proved they belong.

For a refresher: the Hornets received the draft rights to No. 21 pick Craig Brackins and No. 26 pick Quincy Pondexter in exchange for Aldrich and Morris Peterson’s $6.2 million contract. It looks like Mo will slide comfortably into Kevin Ollie’s veteran mentor shoes (I bet they’re penny loafers) while the Hornets have safely avoided luxury tax territory by ditching his deal.

Aldrich, Brackins, and Pondexter are all likely to be productive pros, but Cole’s game has been criticized to no end due to his lack of offensive polish. The Thunder definitely need help with scoring from the 4 and 5, but as long as Aldrich can rebounding (he can) and defend (which he does well), he’ll have a long, successful run as a Durant sidekick.

Sam Presti doesn’t just wait by the phone. He had antennae implanted in his brain years ago, for convenient and instantaneous connections to each and every GM in the league. Every time the draft broadcast goes 5 minutes without mentioning the Thunder or showing Kevin Durant, he makes a brain call and a subsequent move. Boom, whiz, pow, and the Thunder grabbed the 11th pick in a draft that didn’t feature them as major players — and filled a positional need — while holding on to the 18th pick.

OKC sent two late first rounders (the 21st and 26th picks, which were used on Craig Brackins and Quincy Pondexter) to New Orleans for Morris Peterson’s $6.2 million contract and the draft rights to Cole Aldrich. Not too shabby.

Aldrich may not pan out as a terrific NBA center, but the Oklahoma City Thunder honestly don’t need all that much. For the moment — and the foreseeable future — the Thunder just need someone to play quality minutes in the middle, and Aldrich can grab rebounds and play solid interior defense while finally giving OKC some depth at the 5. There’s nothing all that attractive about this game, and he won’t go down as the best center in this draft. Not a chance.

That won’t stop him from being a long-time, consistent role player that specializes in defense, which isn’t the easiest thing to find in a center. Aldrich won’t have Chris Paul force-feeding him buckets, but playing with Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook is a pretty plush gig, too.

The question is whether or not Mo Pete’s immediate effect on the Thunder’s salary total will make the acquisition of Aldrich worthwhile. New Orleans needed to ditch Peterson’s contract to escape the luxury tax, but that same $6.2 million will eat into OKC’s cap room this summer. For now, this trade gets an incomplete. Not only because we need to see Aldridge in NBA action to properly assess his game, but also because the financial implications for the Thunder could be minimal.